General

JStyx is a pure-Java implementation of the Styx
protocol for distributed systems. Styx is used by the Inferno
and Plan9 operating systems.
Styx is essentially a file-sharing protocol; it is similar in many respects to NFS but
in Styx systems, files do not always represent bytes on the hard disk. They may represent
a chunk of RAM, a physical device such as the screen, the interface to a device such as a
digital camera or the interface to a program.

Both the Inferno and Plan9 operating system virtualize all resources as files and
both use Styx as the protocol for accessing all these files, irrespective of the
underlying resource they represent and their location (local or remote). Applications
in Inferno and Plan9 do not know the difference between local and remote files: the
underlying operating system routes all Styx messages to the correct location.
Therefore the creation of distributed systems with Inferno and Plan9 is very
easy. The idea behind JStyx is to allow similarly easy development of distributed
applications in other operating systems.

The first place to go for information is the JStyx website,
which is where you are probably reading this FAQ ;-). You can join the
mailing lists: the jstyx-users
mailing list is the one to use for posting questions about all aspects of the use of JStyx.
Please check the archives
(and read through this FAQ!) before posting a new question.

Download and installation

The JStyx software (and the Styx Grid Services software) have only
been tested on Windows XP and Linux. However, the software is pure
Java and should work on any platform that has a Java runtime environment,
version 1.4.2 and above.

The software is distributed as Windows and Unix versions, but the only
difference between the versions is the scripts that are used to launch
programs. The core libraries are identical. Mac OSX users should get
the Unix distribution (although this has not yet been tested).

The JStyx software is released under a BSD-style Open Source licence: see
here for the full licence text. Essentially
you are allowed to do anything with the software, provided that you include
the licence text with any redistribution.